On a chilly bluebird morning, skiers descended on the Leo J. Martin Ski Track for some communal fun. All the races were mass start, with Bill Koch aged skiers racing first on a 1km loop, doing either one, two, or three laps. Then came the lollipop skiers and their parents, making their way around the horseshoe shaped course followed by treats of the traditional post race lollipops. Next went the women’s 5km, then the men’s 5km racing around a 4 lap course. The final race of the morning was the mixed gender 10km, with 77 starters. All totaled 248 skiers competed in the event. While there were some fast juniors and masters pushing the pace at the front of each race, most of the competitors were happy to be racing and skiing for a good cause, some were even wearing party hats. Many of the skiers took turns cheering each other on as many of their families and friends competed throughout the morning. The event served as a fundraiser for 350.org, a climate action group based in Massachusetts. Kudos go out to the next generation of high school skiers who organized the well run event! This was the 6th edition of the event originally created by Tyler Lee who now skis for Dartmouth College.

Photography by Jamie Douchett

Originally hosted in Hanover, NH in honor of Al Merrill, the “Silver Fox” moved to the Rikert Nordic Center several years ago because of a reliable snowmaking system. It was a particularly fun to be a part of this years event because it was the first one Rikert was able to host since the Middlebury Carnival in 2020. Ford Sayre has figured out a perfect recipe for hosting a citizens race so to include lolly-poppers, nationally ranked skiers and masters in one day of non-stop action. Oh, and a complement of inflatable dinosaurs and chickens. Like the Race for Snow, club skiers past and present helped support the event throughout the day while getting to put on a bib when their time came...read full story HERE (including results, the Craftsbury Scramble and more great photos)

January 12:

When Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall won the United States' first Olympic gold medal in cross-county skiing in 2018, they turned a page and brought their country to the line next to the Nordic powerhouses of Norway, Russia, Sweden and Finland. Diggins' subsequent success has proved that their success wasn't a fluke. She was the World Cup overall champion in 2021, while teammate Rosie Brennan was fourth. Randall has since retired. Diggins and Brennan along with a revamped U.S. team head to the Beijing Games in February with a list of podium finishes and hopes for more medals. ...Read the Full Story at CBC.ca.

Watch top athletes from cross country clubs across America compete in the National Nordic Foundation U.S. Ski & Snowboard SuperTour this season. ...WATCH NOW

by Jake Brown

I started biathlon as a way to keep skate ski racing after college, avoid sprinting, and maybe, just maybe, learn how to shoot well enough to represent the US internationally. I knew very little about the sport- I knew that Tim Burke was a fast rollerskier who beat US Ski Teamers at the Climb to the Castle but that was about it. Over my relatively short international career my mind has been repeatedly blown, first by how fast the skiers are and how deep, competitive, and international the field is in this sport, and, second, how popular biathlon is in Europe. 

December's World Cup in the tiny alpine village of Le Grand Bornand, France, delivered another reminder. 75,000 tickets were supposedly sold, but it was the passion for biathlon of the 75,000 buyers of those tickets that made me shake my head in disbelief. Fans standing 30 rows thick lined the steepest hills during the weekend’s pursuit and mass start events. Even the long flat straightaways with limited visibility were packed with people 5-10 rows thick. The stadium erupted with each French hit so violently that it would spoil the result for us as we watched the women’s races on TV while waiting for our own races to start in our AirBnB a mile up-valley. And that was with all doors and windows closed. On course warming up it was no different. Fans standing since 8am to get the best views would chant U-S-A every time we ski by, passionately waving their French flags yet equally psyched to play a role in each nation’s success. My teammate Clare Egan waved with both arms to one of her friends during her cool-down (our warm-up), and the crowd mistook her gesture as encouragement to dance. And so respond they did, with body, soul and voice, with the full hill mimicking her two arm wave in unison- Everybody to the right! Everybody to the left! Even when I threw my shots wide during the pursuit and charged up the hill in dead last, still fighting for a chance at 59th, the U-S-A chants rang out in a deafening roar as if I was a USA hockey defender in the waning seconds of a third-period power play kill against the Canadians in the Olympic. 

When I think back to the kid I was not so long ago who knew nothing of biathlon, I wish I could share with him a taste of the excitement of the French World Cup fans. Little would I have known that I’d develop the same passion that they have for the sport of biathlon over the past five seasons, and counting.